


The Star-Crazy Cult

by SeaSpectre160



Series: World of All Riders [7]
Category: Criminal Minds, Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider Fourze
Genre: Crossover, Gang Violence, Gen, Murder, Post-Finale (Kamen Rider Fourze), Prison Attack, Reunions, Season 10 (Criminal Minds), Stealth Crossover, Trolling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 16:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4528713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaSpectre160/pseuds/SeaSpectre160
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryūsei never thought he'd have to investigate Zodiarts in Boston. The BAU agents don't know whether their Interpol consultant is pulling one over on them or is just plain nuts.</p><p>
  <img/>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One Very Unusual Briefing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The BAU gets the weirdest briefing they've ever had, because this is probably the weirdest case they will ever work.
> 
> Ryūsei has to explain to a team of seasoned government agents how strange the world REALLY is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, like 'The Other Two-in-One Hero', I'm pretty sure this is the first crossover on this site between these two shows.
> 
> I've got the first three chapters completely written, and plan for this to be either 5 or 6 chapters long in total. Chapter 2 will be coming out on Tuesday, and Chapter 3 on Friday, but we'll just have to see about Chapters 4 through 5/6. By then, I will have my main fanfic binder back, and will be focusing on 'Return to the Digital World IV: Value'. But until then, here's a little story called 'The Star-Crazy Cult'!
> 
> This story is loosely connected to 'The Other Two-in-One Hero' as a prequel, but I didn't put in too many spoilers.
> 
> For those only familiar with one of these two shows:
> 
> 'Criminal Minds' is a crime drama about a team of FBI profilers, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), that solves crimes all over the US, their specialty being serial killers. This is set during Season 10, the one that just ended, in between Episodes 15 'Scream' and 16 'Lockdown'. Agent Kate Callahan is on the team, but has not yet announced her pregnancy, or possibly doesn't even know. Agent Emily Prentiss, who left the team at the end of Season 7, now runs the London Office of Interpol.
> 
> 'Kamen Rider Fourze' is the twenty-second series in the 'Kamen Rider' franchise, running from the fall of 2011 to fall 2012. A large chunk of it will be summarised in this chapter, but the heroic ensemble consists of eight high school students whose school is being plagued by monster attacks, and they form a group called the 'Kamen Rider Club' to stop them. Two of their members, Gentarō and Ryūsei, are Kamen Rider Fourze and Kamen Rider Meteor. A crossover movie partially set a bit over five years after the finale shows that Ryūsei becomes an Interpol investigator after graduating.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds or Kamen Rider Fourze.

_“Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others.” – Jonathan Winters_

* * *

_Tuesday, February 17 th, 2015_

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner’s initial (internal) reaction to the young investigator who’d just walked into the Boston Field Office was one of disbelief. The kid looked like he should still be in college or even high school, to be perfectly honest. Hotch figured he was in his early twenties, at the oldest. He was dressed professionally enough, in a dark blue suit with black leather gloves, which he was pulling off now that he was indoors. His dark hair was just short enough to avoid covering his eyes, which were scanning the room with an experience that belied his youth.

This was the Interpol investigator that Emily had recommended; she’d claimed that he was the top expert on the Unsubs responsible for the recent string of gang murders, the ones who apparently dressed up in strange, elaborate monster costumes, according to witness statements and security footage taken around a few of the murder scenes. The strange thing (other than the obvious) was that they were assassinating members of two rival gangs, so their allegiance was so far unclear. The current theory was that they were aligned with a third, unidentified gang that wanted the other two to blame each other and kill each other off. The significance of the constellation patterns that Reid spotted on the costumes was still unknown.

* * *

Sakuta Ryūsei had just joined Interpol a little over a year ago, when the organisation had uncovered details about the Zodiarts and how the Kamen Rider Club had basically taken care of it where the police had utterly failed. Interpol had made job offers to all eight of the original members, but Ryūsei had been the only one to accept. The others had had their own goals to pursue. Jōjima Yūki had had her dream of being an astronaut since early childhood, and hadn’t been about to give up on it. The same went for Daimonji Shun with football. Kazashiro Miu had been scouted as a model, Jingū Kaizō (JK) had gotten into journalism, and Kisaragi Gentarō and Nozama Tomoko had discovered their respective passions for teaching and writing. Utahoshi Kengo had been tempted, but he’d already been picked up by the best research institute in Japan to continue his and his father’s work with Cosmic Energy. Ryūsei had had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, so when the offer had come, he’d jumped at the chance to use his skills to help make the world a better place. To keep being a hero.

So when Interpol had gotten wind of monsters with constellations on their bodies wreaking havoc in America, he’d been called in to assist in dealing with them. After all, he was the only agent who possessed the knowledge, the skills, and the means to take down a Zodiarts. The ones in question had been using their powers in an attempt to turn the tide in a gang war in the Boston slums. From the images he’d received, Ryūsei had identified two of them as Cetus (the sea monster that modern movies on Greek mythology had inexplicably replaced with the Kraken from Norse mythology) and Auriga (the chariot). Those two were on opposite sides of the feud, so bodies were dropping on both sides, and even though there was no obvious international component, Interpol’s American office had requested that FBI allow Ryūsei to consult on the investigation because of his past experiences. He was to find out just how the Switches had gotten to the States and put a stop to it. The rest of the Club had been alerted, and were on standby as ‘special consultants’ if things got really hairy. Inga Blink would have joined him, but she was still busy with an op in France.

* * *

Hotch went over to greet the new, temporary member of the taskforce. “Agent Sakuta?” he checked, shaking the boy’s hand when he got a nod in response, “I’m SSA Aaron Hotchner, with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. I understand you’ve seen something like this before?” Frankly, he had been surprised to hear that _anything_ like this madness had happened before.

Sakuta nodded again in confirmation. “Yes, though the circumstances were a bit different. I can brief you and a few other agents on what I know of the situation when you’re ready, but my supervisors are requesting that certain details be kept on a need-to-know basis. You and your team will be given full disclosure, of course.”

Hotch was grateful for that. He didn’t like it when his team was kept in the dark, especially when the information was needed for them to do their jobs. “Well, we’re ready as soon as two of our agents return from the latest crime scene, but that should be any minute now. The briefing room is this way.” Hotch led Sakuta there, gathering up the rest of his agents along the way. Introductions were made, and Morgan and Rossi returned from the field only a couple minutes later, then Sakuta began his explanation with the aid of a PowerPoint.

* * *

“The first thing you have to understand is that the world is stranger than you believe. Given what you’ve probably seen on the job, that may be difficult to swallow, but it’s the truth. Have any of you heard of Kamen Riders?”

A bespectacled blonde in bright clothes near the back, introduced earlier as the BAU’s technical analyst Penelope Garcia, raised her hand. “I’ve seen blogs about them online. They’re an urban legend; masked superheroes supposedly fighting monsters in Japan.”

An African-American man (Agent Derek Morgan) sitting next to her scoffed. “You’re not telling us those are real?”

Ryūsei only gave the agent a mischievous grin. “Your culprits are using devices called Zodiarts Switches,” he stated, bringing up a slide of a black and silver hand-held switch with a red button on the top. “Three years ago, these object were used by a secret cult in Tokyo that took control of a high school, recruiting students into its ranks with the promise of power, success, revenge, whatever they were reaching for. These devices can be considered both weapons and drugs; they harness a form of radiation known as Cosmic Energy to give the user incredible powers, but they’re also dangerously addictive.”

A new slide came up, showing blurry images that the agents were familiar with: two security camera stills of two different Unsubs. “Users of the Zodiarts Switches, called Switchers, become creatures like these with just the push of a button. All Zodiarts are based on the constellations; what we have here are Cetus and Auriga.”

For further proof, he showed them images of Cygnus and Pegasus. Ryūsei read skepticism on most of their expressions, and so followed up with a video clip of Kimio Nonomura transforming into the Lynx Zodiarts in the café when the Club had confronted him.

“If you still doubt me, and if any of you are at all versed in advanced quantum physics, I have a summary write-up on Cosmic Energy that you can read.”

Dr. Spencer Reid raised his hand, and Ryūsei handed him a tablet. The young doctor raised his eyebrows when he saw the name at the top of the first page. “Kengo Utahoshi? Any relation to the late Dr. Rokurō Utahoshi?”

Ryūsei nodded. “His son. Most of the data in that report came from the doctor himself. Kengo’s a science prodigy, so he became an expert himself by the age of seventeen and picked up where his father left off. Dr. Utahoshi himself had been killed when he learned what his friend and colleague, who would soon become the founder and leader of this cult, was planning.

“The cult leader had a tremendous amount of influence over the police, and used the power of his Switch to amplify that, so when Kengo was in his first year at that school, an insider within the cult gave him the necessary tools and research data to attempt to take care of the problem. He wound up gathering a small group of schoolmates to help him, calling themselves the Kamen Rider Club.”

Ryūsei noted that the agents were still skeptical and probably questioning his sanity, though the younger one (Dr. Reid) was engrossed in reading Kengo’s report. He kept going despite their disbelieving stares. “I know what you’re thinking: you believe I’m either insane or pulling one over on you and wasting your time. I wouldn’t have believed any of this either, until I saw a guy being put into a coma by a malfunctioning Switch right in front of me.” He did his best to hide the emotion in his voice as the memory of nearly losing his best friend resurfaced. “The Club would identify a Switcher, figure out their motives and endgame, and bring them down and destroy the Switch. They even managed to reform most of the former Switchers and help them get over the after-effects of using those things.

“Eventually, this brought them into conflict with the cult leader, whom they eventually defeated as well, though he’d been using his Switch for eighteen years, and as a result of what he’d put his body through, he died soon after.”

Morgan huffed and began to stand up. “This is crazy. You guys can’t be believing this!”

“Actually,” Reid interrupted, having already finished reading the report, “As crazy as it sounds, the science here is sound. It’s fascinating, really; these Switches project enough of this Cosmic Energy to actually create a solid construct around the user, just like the ‘monster costumes’ that our Unsubs seem to be wearing.”

“You believe him?” Hotch questioned.

“I do, actually, as impossible as it sounds.”

Ryūsei decided to not ask how the man was able to read Kengo’s ‘short’ (read: ten pages in tiny font) write-up so quickly, instead choosing to just be grateful that one of the agents believed him. The others seemed to be convinced at varying degrees with this agent vouching for him. He cleared his throat to bring their attention back to him. “As far as we can figure, the creator of the Switches had other associates who managed to bring some to America and distribute them to both of these gangs. We don’t know who they are or what their motives are, but one thing is clear: the Switches need to be recovered and destroyed.”

“Wouldn’t the United States government want to keep some for research?” the slimmer blonde (introduced as Agent Jennifer Jareau) asked, “The DoD would probably kill for the chance to recreate the technology if it’s that effective.”

Ryūsei frowned deeply. “They probably would. But remember, these things are part weapon and part drug, and they render the Switchers mentally unstable after repeated uses. Experimenting with them has proven to have terrible consequences. It’s better for the whole world that the Zodiarts Switches be wiped out of existence.” His tone brokered no argument, or at least he hoped so. Interpol had also toyed with the idea of reproducing Zodiarts Switches and Gaia Memories, and it had taken a lot of arguing to talk them out of that insane idea. It simply wouldn’t have ended well.

“We can argue about that later,” a brunette woman (Agent Kate Callahan) interjected, “Right now, we need to get these things off the streets.”

“Kate’s right,” Agent Hotchner agreed, “Agent Sakuta, how do you propose we deal with these… Switchers? Forensic evidence and security footage show that typical firearms are completely ineffective.”

Ryūsei nodded seriously. “I have access to some of the gear that can take a Zodiarts down, and I also brought some modified weapons for the rest of you with me. It doesn’t take long to learn how to use them; they are particularly powerful and painfully easy to operate. So obviously we’d rather those not wind up in the wrong hands, either. My gear, however, is strictly reserved for my personal use. I’m the only one trained to use it, and even if I were to give one or more of you a crash-course, you probably wouldn’t be able to use it as effectively. I’ve been using it for more than three years now.”

“Would you at least give us some sort of demonstration so that we know what to expect in the field?” Agent David Rossi requested, looking curious.

That made Ryūsei grin like a fiend. The agents of the BAU were likely to be capable of more… flexible thinking thanks to the deviant natures of their targets, but he doubted they’d be prepared to see him go Meteor. And as much as he’d like to pull a surprise move in the middle of a real fight and shock the hell out of them, the distraction would likely do the agents more harm than good. It would be best to get that part over with in a safe environment, without any annoying Zodiarts trying to kill him. Still, even without that added excitement, this promised to be _fun_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The comment about Cetus and the Kraken is true; 'Clash of the Titans' and various other modern retellings of the Perseus myth got it WRONG. A lot of movies about Greek Mythology get it wrong, though sometimes it's on purpose to make a more exciting story. Achilles was not in the Trojan Horse, no matter what 'Troy' says. Hades is not the equivalent of Satan, no matter what MANY movies say (especially the first Percy Jackson movie, which is notable because the BOOK IT'S BASED ON got it right).
> 
> Okay, I'm going to stop myself now before I go on a full-blown rant on something you might not even be interested in.
> 
> In Chapter Two, Ryūsei shows the BAU a taste of his power, and we determine how the Zodiarts Switches got into America. Here's a preview: 
> 
> Derek Morgan would never admit it out loud, but this young Interpol investigator had just shocked him in a way no unsub had ever achieved. Telling tales of people turning into monsters with the flip of a switch, of monster cults, and of HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS doing what the police could not and putting them down, now that was one thing. But when the young man – honestly still a kid himself! – was suddenly engulfed in a big ball of blue energy, the likes of which Derek had only seen on TV and in movies, THAT turned his whole world upside down. Sakuta had been telling the truth: the world was, in fact, even stranger than they'd believed. Which was saying something, considering the nutjobs they chased down for a living.


	2. Two Rather Major Breakthroughs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The BAU gets another surpirse. A lead finally surfaces in the case.
> 
> Ryūsei has WAY too much fun freaking the FBI out. He also makes a productive phone call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand here's another chapter! The first three chapters will be largely about the BAU reacting to everything they're learning, but as I start writing Chapter 4, they will get a chance to use their own skills, so that this isn't just about Ryūsei being badass and the BAU not really contributing.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds or Kamen Rider Fourze.

_Tuesday, February 17 th, 2015_

For the demonstration, Ryūsei took the BAU to an old gym that had been converted into an Interpol safe house years ago. It still had an open area set up for training purposes, and was secure enough that someone not in the know couldn’t just walk in on them, so it was the ideal location. Taking his Meteor Driver out of his bag, he motioned for everyone to stand back. He was looking forward to this.

 _‘Meteor On! Ready?_ ’ The Driver had more than one BAU member blinking, especially when the music started playing. Tachibana/Emoto had never given him a straight answer when he’d asked about that.

Ryūsei made the usual arm motions. “Henshin!” he yelled, and swiped the lever on his Driver.

* * *

Derek Morgan would never admit it out loud, but this young Interpol investigator had just shocked him in a way no Unsub had ever achieved. Telling tales of people turning into monsters with the flip of a switch, of monster cults, and of _high school students_ doing what the police could not and putting them down, now that was one thing. But when the young man – honestly still a kid himself! – was suddenly engulfed in a big ball of blue energy, the likes of which Derek had only seen on TV and in movies, _that_ turned his whole world upside down. Sakuta had been telling the truth: the world was, in fact, even stranger than they’d believed. Which was saying something, considering the nutjobs they chased down for a living.

When the blue energy-ball-thing was gone, Sakuta had also vanished, only to be replaced by a person in a black leather bodysuit decorated with sparkling studs. His right shoulder was covered in bright blue armour, and his head by a helmet of the same colour that had spikes sticking off diagonally up and to his left, resembling a comet’s tail, and big, purple eyes. The freaky belt that had started all this was still around his waist.

Beside him, Kate was doing her best impression of a landed fish, while Hotch and Rossi were staring, eyes wide. JJ abruptly sat down on a nearby bench, Reid started muttering something sciencey that sounded way out of Derek’s league, and Garcia…

“Oh my God, you’re a Kamen Rider!” she squealed, “You guys actually _are_ real!” Derek vaguely remembered Sakuta mentioning them at the beginning of his briefing, and Garcia describing them as some sort of superhero urban legends. At this point, as he watched her fangirl over the guy in sparkly black leather and shiny blue armour, he wondered if he wasn’t still asleep in his hotel room, and if this wasn’t all some weird dream.

“Yes,” Sakuta confirmed, his voice somewhat distorted but still recognisable, “but we’d prefer it if you didn’t spread that around. We Kamen Riders mostly prefer to work in secret, without official interference. Most laws and procedures don’t work well with dealing with monsters, since the people who wrote them never imagined that such a situation could occur. There are a few Riders who either cooperate with or are members of their local police force, but those are few in number, and I’m the only one working for Interpol.”

Hotch, getting over his surprise fairly quickly, frowned. “Are you saying that most Kamen Riders are vigilantes?”

“Not exactly. The Zodiarts aren’t the only kind of monsters out there, and any cops who know about them know that normal police can’t handle them, but we can. There’s sort of an unspoken understanding that we deal with the monsters and the police handle the rest. We all do our best to not get in each other’s way.” He fiddled with something on his belt, and with another flash of blue light, he was back to normal. “As Kamen Rider Meteor, I’m stronger and faster than any ordinary human. I’m not invincible by any means, but I can definitely take a harder beating.”

Garcia was still bouncing in place in excitement. “Did you bring any other Kamen Riders with you?”

“No, but I have my friend Kamen Rider Fourze on standby, along with our shared support crew. If this situation turns out to be bigger than expected, I have the authorisation to call them in for backup. Until then, you just have me.”

* * *

It took the BAU over an hour to come to grips with the revelations that monsters and superheroes actually existed. By then, they were back at the Boston Field Office, sharing their data with Sakuta. Rossi got the distinct impression that the young agent had thoroughly enjoyed watching them freak out when he revealed his secrets.

“The only witness who’s been willing to talk said that he saw a group of men from the Jackknives talking to a pair of men in white,” JJ explained, “They exchanged briefcases and got out of there quickly. We don’t know who these men are, and the witness didn’t get a good look at their faces.”

Sakuta frowned, now all business. “Were they dressed in all-white uniforms?” he asked, his face darkening.

“I think so,” Kate murmured, looking over the interview transcription, “Yeah, here it is: ‘Some dudes all in white, looked like some kinda creepy uniform.’ Why, do you know who they might be?” Everyone turned to look at him, eager for a long-awaited break in the case.

He nodded seriously, looking even grimmer. “Foundation X. They’re a shadow organisation that deals in the development of advanced technology, the dangerous kind. They financed the original creation of the Zodiarts Switches, among other things. I don’t know why I didn’t think of them sooner; they’ve been quiet lately, but…” He went over to his briefcase and started digging through it. “I think I have a file on them on my laptop, but I should still call two of my consultants. They’re partners in a private detective agency who came across Foundation X long before Interpol even knew they existed. Hell, most of the intel on this file came directly from them.”

“Why would this Foundation come all the way over here to sell Switches?” Morgan asked, trying to work out a motive.

“Well, from what we know of them, they’re always looking for more data to keep developing new tech. This could all be just one big experiment for the sake of research. There are plenty of documented fights between a Zodiarts and a Kamen Rider, but not so many featuring two Zodiarts squaring off against each other. As for why they came here, they’ve probably figured out that we’re keeping an eye out for them in Japan. Considering they’ve been off our radar for two years, who knows what else they’ve been up to without our knowledge. Foundation X doesn’t care who gets hurt, as long as they get their data, so a dozen dead gang members mean nothing to them. They won’t stop until we stop them.”

Rossi sighed. “Like spree killers, even if they’re not technically the ones doing the killing.”

“They _will_ use lethal force if someone gets in their way. They have lots of dangerous technology at their disposal.” Sakuta had finally extracted his laptop, and was now waiting for it to finish powering up. “I just hope it’s nothing like that lunatic Kannagi.” At their questioning looks, he explained: “Lem Kannagi was a senior Foundation X agent who had delusions of godhood, went rogue, and tried to take over the world. No, I’m not joking; he _actually attempted world domination_. Thankfully, he didn’t get very far. Kamen Riders Fourze and OOO stopped him, with backup from two other Riders, Double and Nadeshiko. That was just after I started as a Kamen Rider, but I wasn’t involved in that. Hadn’t made my ‘official’ debut yet.”

“And this is stuff that Kamen Riders normally deal with?” Reid asked, eyebrows raised.

“Well, first it’s just routine monsters, but nutjobs like that are usually the ones behind it all, and they tend to have more convoluted plans and are usually tougher to beat. It kind of builds up as the bad guys slowly realise that the new Kamen Rider is actually a threat, which I supposed is good; gives the new guys time to get stronger by the time they have to deal with the biggest threat. Kannagi just didn’t bother with the smaller stuff first, which is why it took a total of four Kamen Riders, two of them experienced veterans, to beat him. Ah, here it is.” He pulled up a couple files, focusing on a photograph of four people, three men and one woman, all in white suits. “If you see anyone wearing these uniforms, I wouldn’t suggest trying to arrest them right away. They usually carry a piece of advanced weaponry on-hand, and the last thing we want is some poor cops finding themselves face-to-face with something deadly that they’ve never heard of.” A few more taps on the keyboard, and he’d sent the files to Garcia’s computer and the other agents’ PDAs. “Here, you can get yourselves updated while I call my contacts.” And he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and moved off to the side.

* * *

Ryūsei quickly dialled the Narumi Detective Agency and got Terui Akiko. “Hi, Akiko-chan, can I talk to Philip, please? I’ve got a case here involving Foundation X and a team of FBI agents anxious for a lead.”

The perky young woman told him that he and Hidari Shōtarō were actually in America right now, tracking down Gaia Memory dealers who’d shown up there. Neither felt that this was a coincidence. He got Shōtarō’s number, thanked her, and hung up.

“Guess what?” he called, getting the FBI agents’ attention. “Apparently my contacts are right here in America, tracking down something similar; their own brand of enemies were also financed by Foundation X, using technology similar to the Zodiarts Switches. Guess what turned up here in the States around the same time as the Switches?”

“Exactly how similar is this other technology?” Reid asked.

“The Gaia Memories also turn people into monsters, called Dopants, though they’re operated by actually sticking the device into the user’s body, and they tend to have a faster deteriorating effect on their mental state. Foundation X first made themselves known in the aftermath of the collapse of the company that developed them. I’m going to call my friends now.” He let them absorb that new information and dialled Shōtarō’s number.

 _“Hello?”_ The detective answered, sounding out of breath.

“Shōtarō, it’s Ryūsei. Is this a bad time?”

 _“Just chasing a- ow!”_ There was a clattering sound in the background. _“A guy who’s been helping a Dopant. Can you call me back in a- GAH!”_ An even louder crash could be heard, followed by indistinct muttering that, from the tone, sounded a lot like cursing.

“Shōtarō? Are you okay?”

The left half of Double answered eventually, sounding rather aggravated. _“I’m fine. Damn creep knocked over a big pile of crates; I lost him. Now what was it you wanted?”_

“I’ve got a case I need help with; Zodiarts have turned up in Boston and Foundation X is involved. I called your office, and Akiko-chan said you were dealing with a similar problem.”

_“Yeah, I’m in Ohio right now. They must’ve brought the Gaia Memories and Zodiarts Switches at the same time. You want me to put Philip on the line?”_

“Sure. I’ve already got a few keywords for a lookup.”

After a few seconds, Philip could be heard. _“Sakuta Ryūsei. It’s been a while. What are the keywords?”_

“Start with Foundation X. Then Cetus Zodiarts. Then Boston. Last keyword: Third Street Jackknives.”

He waited while Philip did his lookup. He didn’t have to wait long. _“Bingo. The Cetus Zodiarts is Cirino Acqua, aged thirty-five, an enforcer of the Third Street Jackknives street gang.”_

Ryūsei grinned. “You wouldn’t happen to have an address, would you?” Because, knowing Philip, it would be rare for him not to.

 _“Of course I do.”_ Philip’s tone made it sound like he was a mix between amused, confused, and offended at the idea that Ryūsei would think he might not have all the information he needed.

Ryūsei glanced over at the FBI agents, who were all alternating between reading his files on Foundation X and pretending they weren’t listening to him. It was just as well that he’d switched to Japanese for his phone calls, even though Shōtarō and Philip were both perfectly fluent in English. Their attempts at hiding their eavesdropping were rather horrible, but he guessed that they really didn’t care whether he noticed or not, and most of them had given up when he’d switched to a different language, anyway.

He knew he was a major source of curiosity for them, which wasn’t a surprise, given that he’d dropped the ‘monsters-and-superheroes-are-real’ bomb on them and revealed himself as being part of that bomb. A couple of his Interpol superiors had been twitchy about letting the FBI in on his identity as Meteor, but he (and the less hard-headed among them) had argued that it could hardly be considered classified information with so many civilians already in the know, and that he _would_ have to work with the agents. Privately, he thought they were just sore that there were more civilians who knew about him than there were law enforcement and government agents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, I figured if I was going to have one member of the BAU already somewhat aware of Kamen Riders, it was going to be Garcia, hands down. Also, something I forgot to mention in the notes for last chapter: Reid's easy acceptance after reading Kengo's write-up was just a shortcut for me to get the agents to believe Ryūsei so I could get that out of the way.
> 
> Preview for next chapter:
> 
> "FBI!" Morgan announced, raising his weapon, "Put your hands on your heads and get down on your knees!"
> 
> The second guy looked ready to obey, but Acqua scoffed and revealed the small item in his hand: A Zodiarts Switch.
> 
> "Don't do it!" Ryūsei yelled, but Acqua hit the button anyway. Everyone else in the alley was pushed back slightly by a powerful gust of wind as the gangbanger was surrounded by a black mist, spots of light forming the Cetus constellation before the Cetus Zodiarts emerged.


	3. Three Debatably Easy Arrests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JJ thinks things through, the FBI close in on their suspect, and Morgan gets to watch a hell of a show.
> 
> Ryūsei wins a parkour chase, finds himself outnumbered, and kicks ass anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all, and welcome to Chapter 3!
> 
> I'm sorry to say that this story will now be on hiatus for a little while. I now have my main fanfic binder back, and my new priority is Part Four of my Digimon series 'Return to the Digital World'. I've been pretty generous to you all, since my usual MO is to post a new chapter every two weeks, and this other story has been on-hold for nearly a year for those who've been following since I started posting revised versions of the first three parts, and five years for those who've been following me since the beginning. As much as I love this story, and as much as I've gathered that you guys like it, those readers who've been waiting for five years take priority. Don't worry, I'll do my best to make sure you don't have to wait that long.
> 
> On a happier note, I'm pleased to present this newest chapter and finally feature some action! For those readers more familiar with Criminal Minds, this will be the last chapter in which the FBI agents do more freaking out than anything else. I have been working on a scene for CH 4 in which they finally get to show off their expertise.
> 
> Oh, and if anyone knows how to pronounce Irish, can you please let me know how to pronounce 'Seaimpíní'?
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kamen Rider Fourze (or any other Kamen Rider shows) or Criminal Minds

_Tuesday, February 17 th, 2015_

JJ had been hoping for a break in this case, but she hadn’t expected it to come in the form of an Interpol agent who was also apparently a part-time superhero. The speed with which he got the ID of one of their Unsubs was a bit suspicious, but he insisted that his contacts simply had an excellent researcher, whose methods were, unfortunately, classified for his own safety. His tone and the look on his face when he insisted on secrecy betrayed how protective he was of this researcher. That person had to be either a fellow Kamen Rider or someone close to them, similar to the Kamen Rider Club.

Because it was rather obvious that he’d been part of that club, even though he’d avoided coming out and saying it. He’d said he had experience with Zodiarts, and had brought up the Club, plus he was the right age to have still been in high school three years ago, and it explained his detailed knowledge on and experience with the Zodiarts. The other Kamen Rider he had on-call, along with their ‘support crew’, would have made up the rest of the membership. The mother in her couldn’t help but feel sorrow at the fact that the situation over there had gotten so bad that _teenagers_ had had to step in to do the job of the police. Normal high school students shouldn’t have to deal with the responsibility of having to save the world.

Actually, now that JJ thought about it, Sakuta had mentioned that the other monsters that had appeared in the US were his contacts’ ‘own brand of enemies’, indicating that they _were_ , in fact, closely affiliated with another Kamen Rider, at the very least. It didn’t explain how they were able to identify Acqua, but it did explain how they knew so much about Foundation X. And it added weight to the possibility that it was why Sakuta was so protective of their researcher. They might be brothers-in-arms.

Now, they were pulling up to the address Sakuta’s contact had given them for one Ciro ‘Cirino’ Acqua, the man using the Cetus Switch (Reid had commented on the irony that a man with a surname meaning ‘water’ in Italian would become a creature modeled after a mythical sea monster). As the lead agency in the investigation, the FBI went into the small, run-down apartment first, with Sakuta behind them, already wearing his special belt (or Driver, as he’d called it), along with local police.

Acqua appeared to have been watching TV when they came in, and the appliance just conveniently happened to be in the room with the fire escape window. Worse, he wasn’t alone. Two other men and one woman had happened to be in the apartment with him, and had escaped along with him. Hotch caught the last guy as he was about to exit. “Freeze! FBI!”

The thug froze, one foot on the sill. Morgan pulled him away from the window and jumped though it himself, giving chase with Sakuta and one of the local cops right on his heels. Hotch and Rossi went back out in hopes of cutting them off while the rest stayed behind to clear the rest of the apartment and read the captured suspect his rights.

* * *

Ryūsei was almost enjoying himself as he and Agent Morgan chased the suspects through the back alleys (the other officer having fallen behind). Their quarry was skilled enough to navigate the alleys and keep some distance ahead of their pursuers, hopping over dumpsters and other crap lying around with some impressive parkour skills. But Ryūsei himself was far from lacking in that department, and while he’d managed to overtake Morgan, the older agent was still keeping up well enough.

The suspects’ luck ran out, however, when they took a wrong turn and wound up stuck in a dead end. Acqua, identified from his mug shots from previous arrests, was bitching the other guy out about screwing up when they cornered them.

“FBI!” Morgan announced, raising his weapon, “Put your hands on your heads and get down on your knees!”

The second guy looked ready to obey, but Acqua scoffed and revealed the small item in his hand: A Zodiarts Switch.

“Don’t do it!” Ryūsei yelled, but Acqua hit the button anyway. Everyone else in the alley was pushed back slightly by a powerful gust of wind as the gangbanger was surrounded by a black mist, fifteen spots of light forming the Cetus constellation before the Cetus Zodiarts emerged.

This Zodiarts was on the bulkier side, his body primarily green that faded to yellow by the end of his clawed, webbed hands. His legs were the same, and he had a long, thick, scaled tail with a deep red tailfin. His head, however, was more reptilian than fishlike, with a huge, gaping mouth full of long, white teeth like daggers.

Ryūsei wasted no time transforming into Meteor while Morgan moved to the side, still covering the non-Zodiarts suspects. He charged at Cetus with a loud battle cry, delivering a flurry of punches and kicks. But the Zodiarts’s hide was tough; he was barely pushed back a couple steps without even moving to defend himself. Then Cetus swung at him with a powerful blow, but he was slow and Meteor ducked. Cetus then fired a powerful jet of water from his mouth, which Meteor also had to dodge, as it actually did damage to the brick wall behind him. Nothing serious, but Ryūsei himself wasn’t exactly made of bricks, so he obviously wouldn’t have been as lucky.

Backing away, he decided on a different tactic. He reached for the module on his right wrist and selected Jupiter.

_‘Jupiter! Ready? Okay! Jupiter!’_

Ryūsei drew his fist back as the Cosmic Energy gathered around it, forming a large replica of the planet. “WATCHAAA!” he yelled as he swung forward and nailed Cetus right in the solar plexus. Cetus went soaring backwards, crashing into the brick wall behind him. It was almost too easy. Even high school students had put up a better fight than this. He supposed that Acqua had simply assumed that it would be easy, out of arrogance, and hadn’t made an effort yet. In that case, it would be best to finish him now before he could correct his error. “Time for a Limit Break.”

But before he could reach for his Meteor Switch, he was distracted by a yell from behind. Ryūsei turned around to see Morgan backing up, reaching for the special weapon strapped to his back, as a second Zodiarts charged at him. Acqua’s male accomplice was laughing triumphantly, but the female was nowhere to be seen. She must have had a Switch of her own.

Her Zodiarts form was a Centaur with a mahogany horse’s lower half, and a distinctly feminine upper body with dark purple armour with pink accents, holding a black crossbow. A dark purple Spartan helmet hid her face from view. By Ryūsei’s guess, this was the Centaurus Zodiarts.

“Agent Morgan!” The cop who’d been chasing with them had finally caught up, and was already aiming his weapon. His shots were well-aimed, but the bullets bounced off the breastplate of the armour. Centaurus turned and fired an energy bolt in the officer’s direction. The man’s instincts were good, and he threw himself to the side, but the bolt hit a pile of crates behind him and caused a small explosion, tossing him into a wall. The officer hit the bricks hard and slumped to the ground.

By then, Morgan had gotten his new weapon in his hands and began firing just as Ryūsei had shown him and his team. His shots were just as accurate as the officer’s, but far more effective, actually causing Centaurus to stumble back.

Seeing that Morgan had it handled, at least for the moment, Meteor turned back to Cetus. He pulled the Meteor Switch out of its spot on his Driver and into the wrist module.

_‘Limit Break! OK!’_

Bright blue energy swirled around his fist this time, and he punched Cetus three times, doing even more damage with each hit than the Jupiter-enhanced punch had.

He heard shouts of shock as Cetus exploded, but quickly caught Acqua’s collapsing form. Thankfully he hadn’t reached Last One yet. Looking up, he was grateful to see that some of the other FBI agents had caught up with them, each wielding their own specialised weapon. He set Acqua to the side and selected Saturn this time, since it was better for long-range attacks and he didn’t want to block the agents’ shots.

_‘Saturn! Ready? OK! Saturn!’_

An image of Saturn formed around his fist, and he swung it forward, launching a set of purple energy rings that repeatedly bashed into Centaurus, knocking her aside.

“Rosalinda!” The untransformed suspect shouted, pulling out his own Zodiarts Switch and activating it before anyone could react.

This Zodiarts was clearly a bird-type, with brown and white feathers and the Eagle constellation, Aquila, on its body. Aquila wasted no time grabbing Centaurus and spreading his huge wings. He fired a burst of small, yellow energy projectiles from his beak, causing everyone to duck, before lifting off.

“You’re not getting away that easily,” Meteor declared, sticking the Meteor Switch back into the Driver and throwing it.

 _‘Meteor On! Ready?’_ Ryūsei bent his legs and prepared to jump as he spun the spherical module on the Driver. _‘Meteor Limit Break!’_

Blue energy like the first Limit Break surrounded him entirely, concentrating on his left foot. Jumping up with another yell, he slammed into both Centaurus and Aquila (who hadn’t gotten that high with the extra weight), executing a perfect Rider Kick. This, combined with the earlier assaults from him and the other agents, was enough to destroy them.

The two humans began to fall as the resulting explosion cleared, but Meteor caught them both and landed easily. The FBI agents’ faces were utterly priceless, even more so than when he’d first showed them his Meteor form. Ryūsei set the Switchers down before ending his transformation and grinning cheekily at them. “I told you I knew what I was doing,” he said simply.

Agent Morgan lowered his weapon, shaking his head in shock. “That was…” He couldn’t seem to find the right words to describe what he’d just witnessed.

Sadly, Ryūsei did: suspiciously easy. No matter how strong he’d gotten, three Zodiarts should not have gone down in the space of five minutes, at least not at the hands of only one Kamen Rider. The first, he could credit to overconfidence, but the other two had seen what he could do and should have fought back hard enough to force him to put more effort in. Either Foundation X had been unintentionally producing defective Switches, or there was a larger scheme at play.

* * *

On the other side of town, three lieutenants of the Seaimpíní gang met with their boss in a small Irish bar, in a corner booth with no other patrons nearby. It wasn’t because of a lack of customers; other sections of the bar were packed. But the regulars knew better than to sit in the vicinity of that booth, and new patrons who dared come too close were stared at and intimidated until they moved.

“Those guys definitely cheated us,” one growled, “It’s the only explanation. They sold those Switches to the Jackknives.”

“How else could Brady have been killed like that?” another agreed, “Nobody drowns by accident in a room where the water hasn’t been working in a week.”

“We know that, Carbrey, you’ve said it a hundred times,” the third snapped, “So what’re we gonna do, Boss? We aren’t gonna let ‘em get away with this, are we?”

“Of course we’re not!” the leader snapped, “But since none of those bastard dealers have called me back, we’re gonna focus on the Jackknives for now. They’ll pay for what they did to your brother, Carbrey, and to Daley and Erin. I want one dead Jackknife a day until they tell us which ones have the Switches.”

“B-Boss, are you sure?” the first lieutenant stammered, “We do this, we’re gonna start an all-out war.”

His boss scowled at him, picking up a steak knife. “Do you know what we are, Hayes? What our name is?”

The other two lieutenants leaned back, not wanting to get in between them. The objecting one gulped. “Seaimpíní. We’re Seaimpíní.”

“Exactly. Do you know what that means? Warriors. We’re _Warriors_ , Hayes. We’re not afraid of a war. Are you or are you not a Warrior?”

“O-Of course I am, Boss. You know I am. One hundred percent.”

The boss smirked. “I do know you are. Now, we’re gonna make the Jackknives wish they never existed. They’ll regret ever stepping on our turf.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all she wrote (for now). I look forward to re-starting this story again, so please be patient. To tide you over, here's a preview of the next chapter:
> 
> "Where were you the night Brady Powers was killed?" JJ asked coolly, unimpressed with his attitude.
> 
> Acqua smirked. "At home, watching Saturday Night Live."
> 
> "At a quarter past noon on a Wednesday?"
> 
> He shrugged. "I have a DVR. What, is that a federal crime now?"
> 
> "No, but murder is."
> 
> "Murder?" Acqua didn't look the slightest bit fazed, his confidence showing through. "I heard the guy drowned."
> 
> "He did," she allowed, "In seawater, in an apartment miles away from any saltwater body. Tell me, Ciro, don't you think that's the slightest bit odd?"


	4. Four Partally Fruitful Interrogations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryūsei worries about the fate of the case.
> 
> The BAU members get to use their own skills instead of just watching the new guy use his.
> 
> Ryūsei notices something that doesn't make sense.
> 
> Another body drops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaack!
> 
> I still have one more exam to go, but it's more than a week from today, so I still have time to post before I have to really buckle down and study.
> 
> All the remaining chapters have been written, and will be posted every other day, giving me time to have this all finished well before my exam. Two other fics, called 'Futsukayoi' and '10 Rules for Living with Hawkeye', will be posted AFTER the exam (but unless you're a fan of Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger or Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, you probably don't care). As for my other Kamen Rider stories-in-development...
> 
> 'Yūisei no Mōsō' is still only about halfway done, I never came up with a solid plotline, so I'm mostly making it up as I go.
> 
> For the 'Knightverse' series, 'Bishop' and 'The Bachelor Party' are finished, but I'm having a bit of a block on 'King', and I intend to release those three together. Plus, I still have to iron out the details of my timeline, so most of the dates used in 'King' would be inaccurate until I get that figured out.
> 
> I've got a plan somewhat set up for the 'Unmade' series. No titles yet, but there will be 9 stories in all, including the 3 that are already posted. The other six will be AU versions of: 1) Episodes 22-30, 2) Episodes 31-40, 3) 'Surprise Future', 4) 'Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser', 5) Episodes 41-48, and 6) 'Chō Movie War Genesis'. As #3 isn't out on DVD yet, I still haven't seen it, and obviously #4 and #6 haven't been released at all. (I'm still psyched to see that Ryū will be appearing in 'Chaser'!)
> 
> The last non-'Repair' fic for this series, 'World of All Riders', is called 'Stranger Things Have Happened', and Ryūsei and Gentarō will be making appearances in the final scene, which is in-progress.
> 
> Lastly: 'Repair'. I've had to make a few tweaks due to the events of 'Gaim Gaiden: Knuckle', but 'The Last Night' is ready and awaiting the completion of 'Picking Up the Pieces'.
> 
> Well, enough of that. Enjoy the newest chapter of 'The Star-Crazy Cult'!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds or Kamen Rider Fourze. Or any other Kamen Rider series. The gangs mentioned in this fic are my creations, as are all their members and those connected to them.
> 
> PS: If anyone is concerned about timeline, the beginning of this fic takes place just after the Judge Roidmude arc (Episodes 18+19) of Drive, which I've placed around February 16th, but before Episode 20, which is on the 27th/28th.

_Wednesday, February 18 th, 2015_

Ryūsei rolled his eyes as Morgan recounted the story of the fight – again – this time to Garcia, who was listening attentively. He’d forgotten what it was like to work with people who were new to the whole ‘Kamen Riders and monsters’ thing. Inga, at least, had already known about the weirdness before they’d even met, so by the time they’d started working together, she’d long since gotten used to him transforming and beating up monsters.

So instead, Ryūsei chose to watch Cirino Acqua’s interrogation. All four suspects arrested the previous day (Acqua, Rosalinda Cavallo, Arnaldo Aita, and Jacopo Lamberti) were in separate interrogation rooms. The three Switchers were already to be charged with possession of illegal weaponry and resisting arrest, while Lamberti was being held and questioned as a possible accomplice. The three men bore the tattoos of the Third Street Jackknives, though Cavallo did not.

Agent Jareau was running this one. She had a file open with crime scene photos of the Brady Powers murder. The 38-year-old man, a member of the Jackknives’ rival the Seaimpíní, had been found in his run-down apartment, evidently having drowned. The fact that there was no running water, and hadn’t been for a week, and that he was in the middle of the living room floor as opposed to the kitchen or bathroom, made the likelihood of his death being an accident near impossible. Even if he’d somehow drowned by accident, someone would have to have removed whatever water he’d drowned in. Even more mysteriously, analysis of the water in Powers’s lungs had revealed it to be seawater. The local police had their lab techs running samples of the leftover water from the Cetus Zodiarts’s attack against it right now.

Acqua, for the most part, was remarkably unconcerned. He probably didn’t think they could charge him, that they had no admissible evidence. It was, admittedly, a concern. They’d had a hell of a time getting an arrest warrant based on Philip’s findings; Ryūsei had been forced to call some Interpol colleagues to pull some strings. While they had plenty of excuses to arrest Acqua for attacking them, they’d needed that warrant just to enter his apartment before all that went down. Combined with the fact that they might not be able to convince a jury to convict him for killing a man by morphing into a monster…

Ryūsei put those worries aside for now. For him, while convicting these people was still very much important, his primary focus was getting those Switches off the street in order to keep more people from getting hurt. He hadn’t been able to destroy the three they’d seized as of yet, the FBI taking them as evidence, but at least they were out of play for the time being. But that was only three Switches from a single gang. He knew the Seaimpíní had Auriga, and possibly others. His job here was nowhere near finished.

* * *

“Where were you the night Brady Powers was killed?” JJ asked coolly, unimpressed with his attitude.

Acqua smirked, paying more attention to her chest than anything else. “At home, watching Saturday Night Live.”

“At eleven in the morning on a Monday?”

He shrugged. “I have a DVR. What, is that a federal crime now?”

“No, but murder is.”

“Murder?” Acqua didn’t look the slightest bit fazed, his overconfidence showing through. “I heard the guy drowned.”

“He did,” she allowed, “In seawater, in an apartment miles away from any saltwater body. Tell me, Ciro, don’t you think that’s the slightest bit odd?”

Acqua shifted a bit, but kept the smirk on his face. “You’ve got nothin’ on me.”

“Oh, actually, we do have something on you.” JJ pulled a picture out of the file and slid it over to him. “Now, is it just me, or does that look a lot like you did yesterday when you attacked a Boston police officer, an Interpol investigator, and multiple FBI agents using a high-tech, illegally trafficked weapon?” She saw his confidence waver when she reminded him of the crime that they _could_ most definitely nail him for. “Interpol had those Switches classified as weapons illegal to own a few years back, did you know that? Disguising yourself with it was clever, I’ll admit, but not clever enough. We’re analyzing trace left at your scene of arrest and comparing it to trace at the murder scene; we _will_ prove that you used the Cetus Switch to kill Brady Powers.”

She saw him tense up when she mentioned that Interpol not only knew about the Switches, but had outlawed them. His fists clenched briefly, his eyes widening slightly, and his breathing rate increased just a bit. Like Sakuta had said, the man had been overconfident; he hadn’t thought that there would be any law written down that could apply to using a Zodiarts Switch. Of course, she was in the FBI and even _she_ hadn’t heard of such a law until yesterday. Still, he should have realised that murder was murder, no matter what weapon was used.

* * *

Rossi’s interrogation of Jacopo Lamberti was going differently. As the only one who hadn’t been in possession of a Zodiarts Switch, and the only one who hadn’t really resisted arrest, he was the least likely to have any useful information, but Rossi had been in the criminal-catching game more than too long to just ignore the possibility that he might know something.

“Interesting company you keep,” he commented idly, “Did you know that when your friends tried to resist arrest, they turned into a sea monster, a centaur, and a giant eagle?”

Lamberti gave a nervous laugh. “I- I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you on drugs, or something?”

“Nope, but I understand why someone would think that. Two days ago, I wouldn’t have believed in that stuff, either. Life’s funny like that, isn’t it?” He leaned forward. “What I actually find odd is that you _didn’t_ have one on you. Why is that? Does your boss think that you couldn’t handle that kind of power? I mean…” He made a show of flipping through the papers in front of him. “Miss Cavallo isn’t even a proper member of the Jackknives, yet she somehow got her hands on one of those Switches. How did she manage to one-up you?”

Lamberti pursed his lips together, his fists clenching as he briefly glared at the table. So he was, possibly, upset at not getting a Switch of his own. “I’m more important than that bitch,” he muttered bitterly, “She just gets what she wants ‘cause she’s still got Arnaldo wrapped around her little finger.”

* * *

Hotch walked into the interrogation room containing Arnaldo Aita. Unlike the other two men, he was silent, neither overconfident nor nervous. His arms were crossed, his mouth clamped shut, and his eyes focused on his reflection in the one-way mirror.

Hotch sat down and met the gangbanger’s gaze impassively. The two of them engaged in what one could call a staring contest, until Aita rolled his eyes. “Just ask me your damn questions.”

There was no offer of an answer in his tone, but Hotch leaned forward and began. “Nine days ago, Daley and Erin Whalen were found dead in their car under an overpass. The vehicle itself appeared to have been dropped from a height of at least seventy-five feet. Now, one would assume that they’d gone over the edge, except that the overpass in question isn’t that high, and the damage to the guardrails above doesn’t match up with the car’s location and isn’t consistent with a vehicle of that size driving through it. It was a very elaborate cover-up, staged to look like a simple accident.”

Aita didn’t respond, but there was definitely some disappointment when the inconsistencies of the cover-up were revealed.

“Earlier today, you used a Zodiarts Switch that gave you enough strength to have possibly lifted that car into the air, and the flight capabilities to reach the altitude from which it was dropped. What do you have to say about that?”

Aita scoffed. “Maybe someone else used it before I found it.”

“You just found it?” Hotch raised his eyebrows, knowing from Agent Sakuta’s briefing and later comments that the Switches didn’t work that way. Once one bonded to a user, no one else could use it. “When?”

“Can’t remember.” Aita shrugged, giving Hotch a challenging look. “I know I can’t deny what I did right in front of you and your people, but you’ve got nothin’ on me for what happened to the… what were their names again?”

* * *

In the fourth interrogation room, Kate was taking a different approach with Rosalinda Cavallo. Photographs of the Daley murder were spread out all over the table, and Cavallo was determinedly avoiding looking at them. She looked mildly green around the gills at the images of the dead bodies.

“Rosalinda, I know you were there when your boyfriend killed the Whalens,” Kate told her gently, “The scorch marks on the guardrail match the ones left in the alley when you shot at Officer Xylander. You’re lucky he’s going to pull through, or we’d already be charging you with his murder. Now, I can help you with this case if you just tell me what happened.”

Cavallo glared up at her. “Aita and I aren’t dating, and I wasn’t there.”

Kate pulled two other files. “Maybe you’re dating now, maybe you’re not, but I know you two have a history. We did a background check when we brought you in, and came across this.”

She placed two photocopied documents onto the table, covering the close-up shot of Erin Whalen’s bloodied face. Cavallo’s breath hitched and her eyes grew watery. One was a birth certificate dated a little over a year earlier, for one Zoe Fiametta Cavallo. The parents were listed as Rosalinda Cavallo and Arnaldo Aita. The second document was a death certificate, dating back to only two months after the first and listing cause of death as SIDS – Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

“I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a child, Rosalinda.”

“You bitch,” Cavallo snapped tearfully, pushing the papers away from herself, “What does my daughter have to do with this?”

Kate showed her the picture of Erin again. “You loved your little girl with all your heart, didn’t you? You still do. I’m sure Erin Whalen loved the baby she was going to have.” At Cavallo’s shocked look, she continued. “That’s right, Erin was ten weeks pregnant. She and her husband were on their way home from the doctor’s office when they were killed.” She waited a few seconds to let that sink in. “Rosalinda, I’m sure you want to protect Arnaldo, but I want you to think about Erin. She wasn’t in the Seaimpíní gang like her husband. She was going to be a mother. Arnaldo could have easily waited until Daley was alone, but instead he killed her along with him. Are you sure you want to stand by someone who would do that, father of your child or not?”

* * *

“Rosalinda Cavallo gave a full confession regarding the Whalen murder,” Kate reported when the agents gathered to discuss their findings, “According to her, Aita’s the one who actually picked the car up and let it drop, but she helped set the trap and stage the scene afterward.”

“Glad you got something,” JJ commented, “Because Acqua refused to cop to the Powers murder. We’ll probably be able to charge him if the water analysis pans out.”

“And it does,” Garcia chimed in as she arrived, “Forensics just called, Cetus’s seawater from the alley matches the seawater found in Brady Powers’s lungs, and can I just say how icky it is that he apparently killed a guy by super-spitting into his mouth?”

“That’s not exactly a pleasant image, no,” Reid agreed, “I think we can nail Aita for the Whalens; even ignoring Cavallo’s testimony, the gouges in the car’s rear bumper are consistent with the pictures of Aquila’s talons we got from the Young family’s camera.” He was referring to the nanny-cam that had been in an apartment near the site of yesterday’s arrest. A quick canvas of the residents in the area had revealed that the family in question had witnessed the battle from inside, and that one particular camera had had an excellent view of Aquila through the window when he’d taken flight. “It’s probably the best we’ll get, short of having him transform again to compare the talons directly.”

“Yeah, no thanks,” Morgan commented, “What about Aita himself?”

Hotch shook his head. “He denied everything.”

“I may have gotten somewhere with Lamberti,” Rossi announced, “I’ve been looking at Boston PD’s existing files on the Jackknives; all three of the men are relatively low-ranked in the gang, but Lamberti is a bit higher than the other two. Yet the way he talked about how Aita managed to wrangle a Switch for his girlfriend, you’d think _he_ was the one in charge.”

“There’s something else,” Sakuta commented, a deep frown on his face as he looked at another file, “There’s another victim here; he also died from falling from a height, and the bruises on his leg are also consistent with Aquila’s talons.”

“Which one?” Hotch questioned, having seen the case files already but unable to place which one Sakuta was referring to.

“Elmo Fortunato, the first victim.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Morgan objected, “Fortunato was a fellow Jackknife, the boss De Luca’s lieutenant. Why would Aita kill him?”

* * *

Jacopo Lamberti made fast tracks away from the FBI building. They hadn’t been able to hold him on anything, and had released him late at night. He had to get to his apartment and pack before De Luca figured out what had happened. Everything was ruined, dammit. The plan had been completely shot by one Interpol agent with some seriously wacked-out gear. Even if the others got out, he couldn’t trust them to protect him. He had to get out of town.

In his haste, he cut through an alley to get to his place, but he suddenly found the exit blocked. “Hello, Lamberti.” Lamberti stopped dead in his tracks, hoping to god it wasn’t one of De Luca’s men.

It wasn’t, though. Once the figure stepped into the light, he recognised the man as Carbrey Powers, a lieutenant in the Seaimpíní gang, and the older brother of the late Brady Powers. “W-What do you want, Powers?” he stuttered.

Powers sauntered forward, pulling something out of his pocket. Lamberti paled and started to run when he recognised it.

“I want you.” Powers hit the little red button on his Zodiarts Switch, turning into the Auriga Zodiarts. He shot forward on the wheels attached to his feet, and swung a whip at Lamberti, catching the fleeing gangbanger by the ankle and tripping him. “The Seaimpíní will have their revenge, and I’ll have mine.”

The police would be called in the next morning to find Jacopo Lamberti’s furiously beaten body lying crumpled in the alley, his neck broken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, now I just feel mean, leaving you guys with more questions. Maybe I should give you a little preview of next chapter to tie you over for the next two days...
> 
> It was just after sunset when they got another lead, but it came at a price. A pair of police officers, along with animal control, responded to a 911 call about a 'wild animal attack'. When they arrived on the scene, one cop was savagely mauled by the escaping creature, and was now in critical condition. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and identified as Nicomede Orlando, another member of the Jackknives.
> 
> Based on the fact that this Zodiarts was described as having fur and claws, Ryūsei was able to narrow the constellation down to possibly six, ten if one counted the Zodiarts that he and the Kamen Rider Club had already faced. It didn't quite narrow the list down enough, but it was better than nothing.
> 
> Til then, Spectre out! (I mean me, not Makoto)


	5. Five Finally-Exposed Conspirators

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garcia finds an important piece of the puzzle.
> 
> Ryūsei still has a bad feeling about the ease of his earlier takedown.
> 
> Another man is killed.
> 
> The FBI makes a play.
> 
> A meeting that is bound to go wrong begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's another chapter!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds or Kamen Rider Fourze or the characters of either.

_Thursday, February 19 th, 2015_

Ryūsei frowned down at the dead body crumpled against the brick wall of the alley. Bruises and cuts covered every inch of exposed skin, his clothes were torn and bloody, and his neck was twisted at an unnatural angle. They’d just watched him walk out of the FBI Field Office less than twelve hours ago, and now he was dead.

“He’s been dead roughly ten hours,” the medical examiner approximated, “I’ll know more after the autopsy, but cause of death appears to be a broken neck. The marks around his neck appear to be braided, possibly from a rope.”

“So was he strangled or was his neck snapped?” Ryūsei asked, then paused, considering another possibility, “Is it possible that he was hanged?”

“Yes, it’s possible, but like I said, that’ll have to wait until the autopsy.”

Ryūsei nodded and let her go back to her work, and walked over to the FBI agents. “The medical examiner’s put time of death around the same time we let him go.”

“His apartment’s in this direction,” Reid commented, “He probably was on his way home, and took a shortcut through here.”

Kate looked at their surroundings. “Sketchy. I wouldn’t walk through this place at night, and _I_ carry a gun.”

“Well, he _is_ one of the kind of guys you’d be worried about running into,” Morgan pointed out, “He probably thought he had nothing to worry about.”

“And obviously he was wrong.” She looked over at the body. “This murder was more drawn-out than the others. Even if the killer was using a Zodiarts Switch, it takes time to beat someone that extensively. This feels personal.”

“Well, two Seaimpíní members and the wife of one were killed in the past two weeks. Even if he didn’t kill them himself, Lamberti’d still be a target for anyone seeking revenge.”

* * *

A few hours later, they got a confirmation from the medical examiner; Jacopo Lamberti had a hangman’s fracture to his spine. Traces of leather with an odd radiation level were found in the wounds on his neck, and it was noted that he had to have been moving at high speed when his neck was broken, in order to account for the severity of the damage.

All the agents were scattered, doing their own tasks. Garcia was combing through Lamberti’s phone and email records and those of the other suspects. Kate, JJ, and Hotch continued to interrogate their prisoners while Ryūsei and Reid went through the Fortunato case files and Morgan and Rossi revisited the scene to look for any other connections.

“Ka-Ching!” Garcia suddenly cried, “Guys, I’ve got something!”

The two agents present gathered around her. “What have you got, Garcia?” Reid asked.

“Okay, when I went through Lamberti’s calls, texts, and emails, I found a lot of communication between him and the other three in the last couple months. There’s a lot of talk about their boss, Bertoldo De Luca, and how he’s getting too old to lead the Jackknives, and that someone should take over.”

“That’s why Fortunato was killed,” Ryūsei realised, “He was De Luca’s right-hand guy, he must have been too loyal and wad considered a threat to their takeover.”

“And the other murders were probably to get the Seaimpíní involved,” Reid guessed “to put the blame for Fortunato’s death on them.”

“But wait, there’s more!” Garcia interjected, “I found a few interesting emails between Arnaldo Aita and one Siobhan Mahoney, who is the daughter of Teague Mahoney, leader of the Seaimpíní. They’re discussing a possible alliance between the two gangs, since she’s in a position to influence her father. This woman’s hard-core, I’m telling you; she’s only twenty-four and she’s got a rap sheet longer than some of her gang’s known enforcers. And she still somehow manages to be Daddy’s Little Girl.”

“Did she know about Acqua and the others conspiring to overthrow De Luca?”

“Yes. In fact- holy moley! She forwarded him an email address as part of their deal, and there’s a deleted email from that address with nothing but a time, date, place and a price.” She tapped some more keys, and huffed. “It’ll take time for me to figure out where it was sent from, whoever it is, they know their stuff.”

“I’ll tell Hotch,” Reid said, “We should probably check that place out; it’s likely where they bought their Switches.”

* * *

Half an hour later, Ryūsei was pulling up to a side-alley in a rental car, meeting Agents Morgan and Rossi. They were already probing the area. “Find anything?” he called as he approached.

“Got some tire treads here,” Morgan said, “But since Aita and his people were here nearly a month ago, so they could be from something completely unrelated.”

Ryūsei sighed. “I guess I expected that.”

Rossi then noticed something, pointing to a nearby gas station. “There’s a security camera on the corner of that building. It’s not pointed directly at the alley, but we might be able to get something from it.”

Morgan nodded. “I’ll go and talk to the manager, see if they still have last month’s footage.”

The two remaining men looked over the rest of the alley, but came up with nothing. “So, what was with you, after Tuesday’s fight?” Rossi eventually asked, “You seemed almost… disappointed.”

Ryūsei sighed. “Partially. Pretty much every Zodiarts I’ve ever fought was tougher than those three combined. It was too easy. I think it was that way for a reason, but I don’t know what.”

Rossi frowned, not liking the implications of that at all.

* * *

It was just after sunset when they got another lead, but it came at a price. A pair of police officers, along with animal control, responded to a 911 call about a ‘wild animal attack’. When they arrived on the scene, one cop was savagely mauled by the escaping creature, and was now in critical condition. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and identified as Nicomede Orlando, another member of the Jackknives.

Based on the fact that this Zodiarts was described as having fur and claws, Ryūsei was able to narrow the constellation down to possibly seven, ten if one counted the Zodiarts that he and the Kamen Rider Club had already faced.* It didn’t quite narrow the list down enough, but it was better than nothing.

Orlando’s phone and email records showed no sign that he’d been involved in Aita and company’s conspiracy. What troubled the agents was that it was the second killing in as many days. The other murders had taken place at four- or five-day intervals, and the victims had alternated as to which gang they’d belonged to. This was two Jackknives in a row, and while that was to be partially expected since all their known Switchers were in jail, the decreased cooling-off period was still worrisome.

“I’ll bet the Seaimpíní are changing their tactics,” Morgan threw out, “They’ve decided enough is enough and are taking one Jackknife out a day, and it’ll probably get worse from there.”

“Garcia, I want you to go through the security tapes Morgan pulled and see if you can identify anyone going into that alley,” Hotch instructed, “Then go back further and try and find when the Seaimpíní bought theirs; it’s possible they used the same location. Aita was in contact with Siobhan Mahoney; I’ll try and get something about that from him. Morgan, Rossi, go talk to De Luca, see if he knows anything about the plots against him. Agent Sakuta, I’d like you to go with them, in case another Zodiarts pops up.”

* * *

Ryūsei was unimpressed with Bertoldo De Luca. He was clearly intimidating to an ordinary person, even in his advanced age (he was pushing eighty), but to someone who’d faced down Zodiarts on the moon as a high schooler, he was rather harmless in comparison. Rossi and Morgan seemed less than impressed as well, which was unsurprising considering the psychos they’d met through their own line of work. They’d already met with him once before, when they’d first arrived in Boston, to ask about the first four murders.

“So, you’re here to talk to me about Jacopo and Nico, aren’t you?” the elderly mob boss asked, “Or the fact that you’re holding two of my people?”

“Both, actually,” Rossi replied easily, “Did you know that Arnaldo Aita, Cirino Acqua, and Rosalinda Cavallo were responsible for the deaths of Brady Powers and Daley and Erin Whalen?”

De Luca took a deep sip out of his wine glass. “They were, were they? I wasn’t aware.” Ryūsei got the feeling he was lying.

“Well, that’s got to be bad for you,” Morgan commented, playing along with the lie, “Your own people acting without your orders. It sort of gives the impression that you’re no longer in charge, doesn’t it?”

That had De Luca leaning forward, and the nearest of his men cracking his knuckles. “You’d better watch your tone there, young man. I am in _full_ control of my organization.”

“Are you sure?” Ryūsei asked quietly, “What if I told you that Aita may have been responsible for the murder of Elmo Fortunato?”

“He was your lieutenant, right?” Rossi added.

De Luca scoffed. “Impossible! That was those Irish bastards in the Seaimpíní!”

“No, it was Aita.” Rossi’s tone made it sound like he was telling a toddler that two and two did not equal three. “He went and got those Switches behind your back, too, didn’t he?”

Ryūsei slid print-outs of Aita’s emails to and from Siobhan Mahoney. “He’s been in contact with Teague Mahoney’s daughter. She gave him the contact information for the people that sold him the Switches, and they’ve even discussed an alliance between your… organisations. Oddly, there was no mention of consulting you on any of this.”

De Luca’s face turned an unflattering shade of red as he read the papers before him (once he put on his reading glasses). “You haven’t written these yourselves, have you?” he asked suspiciously.

“No, sir,” Morgan replied, “And there’s something else you should know. Acqua, Cavallo, and Lamberti were all in on it.” He leaned forward. “They were trying to overthrow you, De Luca. Tell me, how much control do you think you have, that something like this can happen right under your nose? You got played by your own people.”

In De Luca’s enraged expression, Ryūsei thought he saw a flash of the younger cutthroat the man had been in his prime.

* * *

_Friday, February 20 th, 2015_

In the early hours of the morning, two groups met in a shipping warehouse. Tensions were high as they stood facing each other in the centre of the building. Siobhan frowned when she didn’t see Aita or Acqua in the crowd. It lent credence to the rumours of their arrest. Lamberti’s absence, she knew, was because of Carbrey Powers. Her father had demanded revenge for Brady, Daley, and Erin getting killed, and she didn’t blame him in the slightest. She and Erin had been best friends since high school, and the other woman had even met Daley through her. They’d only been married eight months when they were killed. Now Siobhan was feeling guilty for getting her involved with Daley, involved with their world, and for setting this whole thing off.

When she’d been contacted by Arnaldo Aita with a proposal for a truce between their gangs, she’d been skeptical. Not the least because while she was Teague Mahoney’s daughter, she had no official authority within the Seaimpíní. But still, she did have her father’s trust. She’d grown up in this world, she knew how to run things, and he knew better than to ignore her perspective. She could have convinced him to consider a truce with Aita once he took over the Jackknives.

And hadn’t that blown up in her face? De Luca had sent Aita and his crew after her people, her _family_ , in response to the death of his lieutenant. Even worse, Aita had gone along with it. She’d anticipated some sort of betrayal, which was why, when he’d enquired about the Switches (as Connor had used his to intimidate – but not attack – a group of Jackknives encroaching on their territory after receiving it), she’d requested that their benefactors produce lower-powered Switches. That way, if Aita and his people turned on them, she and the others could easily overpower them.

“Bertoldo,” her father greeted De Luca coldly.

“Teague,” the older man replied in the same tone, “It seems there’s been a gross misunderstanding between our groups.”

“Your people killed mine, and blamed us for somethin’ we didn’t do,” _Daidí_ snapped, “What’s there to misunderstand?”

De Luca sighed. “It’s come to my attention that some of my guys… well, I guess they aren’t really _my_ guys anymore. They went behind my back and tried to unseat me. They were the ones who killed Elmo, and I apologize for blaming you.”

“Do you apologize for having Brady killed?” Teague growled, not appeased by this revelation as well, “For Daley? For Daley’s wife? She was innocent!”

“I lost another man! Did you or did you not have one of your subordinates kill Gabriele Innocenti?!” He did, Siobhan knew. Carbrey had been grieving his little brother’s death, and her father had been more than happy to let him vent that grief. “And what about Nicomede Orlando?! What was he killed for?!”

“Your people started this! Whether they were loyal to you or not!”

It was quickly degenerating into a shouting match, so Siobhan stepped in before things could get any worse. “Who was it?” she asked, “Which ones are responsible for killing our people? If they’re trying to take you out, you have no reason to shield them.”

De Luca glared at her. “Arnaldo Aita, his girlfriend Rosalinda Cavallo, Jacopo Lamberti, and Cirino Acqua. You killed Lamberti, and the others were nabbed by the cops. But you already know that, don’t you, _la signorina_?” Siobhan felt a jolt of panic. “I know you were in contact with one of them.”

How had he known? Siobhan immediately turned to her father, who was looking at her in surprise. “That’s not true, _Daidí_ ,” she insisted, “I’d never go behind your back like that.” It was a bald-faced lie, but she knew he’d believe her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Canis Major, Canis Minor, Leo Minor, Lupus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Vulpecula are the seven unused constellations associated with animals with fur and claws. Canes Venatici was the Hound Zodiarts from Episodes 7 and 8, Lynx is from 17 and 18, and Leo was a high-ranking, recurring Zodiarts and the closest thing Ryūsei has to a personal nemesis. Another recurring Zodiarts, Scorpion, evolved from Canis Minor prior to the beginning of the series, but they did technically face her, just not as Canis Minor, only they wouldn't have any way of knowing what her original form was.
> 
> And here's a preview for the next chapter. I think you guys will like this one...
> 
> Ryūsei shook his head and pulled out his cell phone. Eight more people had died since he'd arrived, more than doubling the original body count. This was getting way out of hand. "That's it," he declared, "I'm calling in backup. I'm NOT losing another person to this."
> 
> He dialled the number for his immediate supervisor in Interpol. "It's time," he told the man, "Call in the consultants. I need them in Boston as soon as possible."


	6. Six More Dead Bodies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another slaughter convinces Ryūsei to call in reinforcements.
> 
> The Kamen Rider Club reunites to get the job done.
> 
> The Seaimpíní Switchers make their final play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, I had a hectic day and then had to go to work. So here's the chapter you guys have been waiting for: the Kamen Rider Club is joining the party!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds or Kamen Rider Fourze

_Friday, February 20 th, 2015_

No one was certain where it’d gotten out of control. Maybe it was when De Luca had accused Mahoney’s daughter of collaborating with his traitors. Or maybe it was when Ulick Vincent, one of Mahoney’s lieutenants, had threatened to shoot one Jackknife for getting too close. But everyone could agree that by the time Bertoldo De Luca’s bullet slammed into Teague Mahoney’s chest, there was no hope of the two gangs coming to a peaceful agreement.

Siobhan had screamed, diving towards her father’s body, but Keegan Hayes had grabbed her and dragged her, kicking and screaming, behind cover. She saw Connor and Carbrey activating their Switches, becoming the Lupus and Auriga Zodiarts and charging into the fight. One Jackknife fell under Lupus’s claws, another dropped his gun to grab at Auriga’s whip after it wrapped around his neck. Another member of her crew managed to hit De Luca in the leg, but was gunned down before he could get back behind the crates he was using for cover.

In the end, the Jackknives retreated; she could hear Ulick calling for the other Seaimpíní to pull back, to not follow. Teague Mahoney’s body laid amongst five others on the warehouse floor. Only one of them was a fellow Seaimpíní, the rest were Jackknives. De Luca had gotten away, unfortunately. Siobhan was forced to leave them behind as police sirens sounded, vowing vengeance.

She now had the names of all of Aita’s co-conspirators, and where to find them. That information would not go to waste.

* * *

The BAU and Ryūsei were less than pleased at the sight of the carnage before them. “This is definitely getting out of hand,” Kate stated the obvious, “One or both of the gangs are going to go on a spree, at this rate.”

Morgan shook his head. “De Luca probably called a meeting after we told him about Aita. He clearly didn’t know about them until we presented the information to him.”

“He’s the kind of guy who’s concerned with his own survival over all else,” Rossi profiled, “He believes that the feud should be between the Seaimpíní and Aita’s faction, since he didn’t start it, and went to throw them under the bus.”

“The Seaimpíní likely wouldn’t have cared, though,” Reid continued, gazing at the sheet-covered body of Teague Mahoney, “De Luca ordered the deaths of two of their people, whether he started the fighting or not. There are four dead bodies from the Jackknives, but only two from the Seaimpíní. The two Seampíní and one Jackknife appear to have been killed by gunshot wounds, but the remaining three sustained wounds similar to Lamberti, Innocenti, and Orlando. I’d say these were killed by the same Switchers, so that means we still have at least two Zodiarts running loose.”

Ryūsei shook his head and pulled out his cell phone. Eight more people had died since he’d arrived, more than doubling the original body count. This was getting way out of hand. “That’s it,” he declared, “I’m calling in backup. I’m _not_ losing another person to this.”

He dialled the number for his immediate supervisor in Interpol. “It’s time,” he told the man, “Call in the consultants. I need them in Boston as soon as possible.”

* * *

_Saturday, February 21 st, 2015_

Agent Hotchner accompanied Ryūsei to the airport to pick up the rest of the Kamen Rider Club. Garcia had practically had to be restrained from going, wanting to meet another Kamen Rider, but Ryūsei had assured her that she’d be meeting him once they got back to the FBI Field Office. She was still combing through the old security footage, having identified the van in which the Foundation X operatives had arrived to sell the Switches to Aita’s crew, and was now searching for it in older footage in hopes of pinpointing when they’d made their transaction with the Seaimpíní. The odds were slim that they’d used the same alley and the same van, but it was the only lead they had right now. The other agents were working with Boston PD, primarily the officers who’d been investigating either gang prior to the introduction of the Switches, to try and identify the Seaimpíní Switchers by figuring out who didn’t have alibis for the three unsolved murders.

Ryūsei had to fight to keep from bouncing in anticipation as he searched the de-boarding crowd for his friends. It had been far too long, in his opinion, since they’d all been together. With their jobs and conflicting schedules, arranging reunions had been a hassle. Even though they were coming in to do a job, it was kind of like old times. Actually, the fact that they were reuniting to fight evil made it _just_ like old times.

“RYŪSEI!” Gentarō was the first to emerge, jumping up and down in delight. And he was planning to be an educator! “RYŪSEI! Long time, no see!”

JK was the next person he spotted, if only because his tendency towards bright, gaudy colours had hardly diminished in the past couple of years. He and Gentarō had no problem getting into Ryūsei’s personal space, and neither did Yūki, who popped out from behind JK and joined the group hug.

Shun and Kengo were a bit more restrained, but both were grinning as they shook his hand and clapped him on the back in greeting.

Miu gave him a hug and a quick, friendly peck on the cheek, beaming as she ushered Tomoko forward.

Tomoko. She was the one he’d been the most anxious to see again. They’d started dating only a few months after Gamō’s defeat, and had been together ever since. Keeping their relationship going long-distance hadn’t been without its difficulties, with his job keeping him out of the country as often as not, but they’d made it work. She hugged him tightly, and he held her close and breathed in the strange, yet enticing scent of her homemade perfume – he was afraid to ask what was in it, but it smelled much better than her other concoctions, so he didn’t complain.

“Agent Sakuta?” Agent Hotchner’s voice interrupted them, “If you could introduce me to your friends?”

Ryūsei and Tomoko reluctantly pulled apart. “Uh, right. Guys, this is Agent Hotchner, he’s the leader of the FBI team we’ll be working with. Agent Hotchner, these are my friends Gentarō Kisaragi, Yūki Jōjima, Kengo Utahoshi, Miu Kazashiro, JK – seriously, he won’t answer to anything other than JK – Shun Daimonji, and Tomoko Nozama.” He said the first sentence in Japanese, as the Club members were at varying levels of English competency. Shun and Kengo were actually quite fluent, Yūki, Miu, JK, and Tomoko had been good enough to pass their English classes in high school, and Gentarō was still utterly hopeless with the language.

“How much do you all know about the situation?” Hotchner asked them.

“Ryūsei told us everything over the phone last night,” Kengo replied, speaking for the whole group, “We’re ready to get to work.”

* * *

Tomoko couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed when they got into the command centre the FBI had set up. She’d managed to pass her English classes with decent grades, but that had done nothing to prepare her for the busy office full of government officials speaking way too quickly for her to keep up. She stuck close to Ryūsei the entire walk through, until he brought her over to a setup with multiple computers, occupied by only one other person. Ryūsei had explained what Garcia-san was doing, so Tomoko joined right in. The two women couldn’t have looked any more different, with Tomoko’s dark, gothic look and the FBI Analyst’s blonde hair and bright, eye-catching colours, but once they sat down at their respective computers, the two hackers got into perfect sync with each other.

The rest of the Club spread about assisting the other BAU members. Dr. Reid and Kengo got to discussing the physics behind the Zodiarts, and it was all anyone else could do to keep up. JK and Miu were sending the Foodroids (which garnered flabbergasted looks from nearby agents) out on recon in areas that were known Seaimpíní and Jackknife hangouts while Yūki monitored their progress on Kengo’s computer. Gentarō was really more of a field-action type, so he mostly hung out and watched, with Shun translating for him whenever he had questions.

Ryūsei was more than amused at the FBI agents’ reactions to the Kamen Rider Club. They’d had more reason to take him seriously as an Interpol agent, but none of his friends had gone into the professional bad-guy-catching business _after_ high school, so he’d been worried that they wouldn’t get the same respect. Thankfully, once they got over the initial surprise, the agents seemed willing to accept any help they could get. He could understand how difficult it was to believe, though, that this mismatched group had teamed up to save the world.

Things got disturbing when the autopsy results on the mauled Jackknives from the previous morning came back – the claw marks and leftover hairs found on their bodies were consistent with the ones on the police officer who’d been wounded responding to the attack on Nicomede Orlando, but not the ones on Orlando himself. That meant that there were at least _three_ Zodiarts running around, not two.

* * *

After a few hours, Ryūsei and Gentarō joined Agent Morgan on a patrol of some notable areas of Jackknife territory, in case the Seaimpíní staged another attack to avenge Teague Mahoney.

And they did, but not where the FBI and the Club expected – they attacked the city jail.

When Ryūsei’s group arrived on the scene, they found a half-dozen injured or dead guards in the front room, which had been trashed. Ryūsei and Gentarō wasted no time putting on their Drivers as they raced through the torn-open door, following the crashes and yells while Morgan tended to the wounded until more help arrived. A few detainees met them, evidently attempting to escape, but the two Riders managed to knock out any they encountered. They reached the cafeteria and found a scene of chaos; the attack had happened during lunch, so trays, food, and tables were scattered, as were the prisoners who were frantically trying to get away from the three – not two, but _three_ – Zodiarts trashing the place.

A tan, humanoid Zodiarts (Auriga) with wheels attached to his calves and a long, leather whip had said whip wrapped around Cirino Acqua’s neck, and was shouting furiously. A grey, wolf-like one (Lupus), had Rosalinda Cavallo backed into a corner and was advancing threateningly. And the third was a hulking bear Zodiarts (Ursa Major), growling as he scanned the crowd of inmates for someone.

“Oi!” Gentarō shouted, getting their attention. It worked; all three Zodiarts twisted around to glare at the newcomers. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

They obviously didn’t know exactly what he was saying, since he wasn’t speaking English, but they clearly understood the basic message, because they all began to advance on them. Cavallo was able to slip away with Lupus distracted, but Acqua still had Auriga’s whip around his neck and couldn’t go anywhere.

Both Kamen Riders began to activate their Drivers:

_‘Meteor On! Ready?’_

_‘Three! Two! One!’_

“HENSHIN!”

The Zodiarts and the scarce remaining inmates in the room shielded their eyes from the flashing lights as Kamen Rider Fourze and Kamen Rider Meteor completed their transformations.

“UCHŪ KITAAAAA!” Fourze shouted, sticking his fists into the air.

“Omae no sadame wa ore ga kimeru,”* Meteor declared coolly.

They charged forward, Meteor aiming for Auriga and grabbing at the whip to try and free Acqua while Fourze took on Lupus and Ursa.

He managed to get a strong grip on the whip, kicking Auriga in the face to stun him. With the whip suddenly slack, Acqua was able to unwind it and took off, choking and practically tripping over himself. Auriga let out an inarticulate scream of rage and tried to chase after him, but Meteor refused to let him pass, dropping down with a sweeping kick to trip him. Auriga rolled and got back up to his feet. The wheels attached to his legs suddenly expanded so that they lifted him off the floor, and he shot forward as if he were roller-skating. He crashed into Ryūsei at high speed, slamming him into the cement wall.

Fourze wasn’t having much luck, either, as he was facing two opponents by himself. Lupus was _fast_ , dodging all of Fourze’s punches and kicks and ducking in to strike when he saw an opening. Ursa was a bit slower, but the hits he landed packed a wallop. He had the Shield and Spike modules activated, fending off an attack from one Zodiarts while kicking another and letting the sharp spikes do their damage. But he was tiring out trying to keep up with them. Eventually, he took a powerful blow to the stomach that sent him flying and crashing down on a table, which broke underneath him.

Both Kamen Riders struggled to stand as their enemies advanced upon them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Fourze and Meteor's post-transformation catchphrases, meaning "IT'S SPACE TIIIIIME!" and "Your fate is mine to decide"
> 
> And preview for the final chapter:
> 
> "She's entered Last One!" Kengo gasped.
> 
> "Wait!" Fourze yelled, running forward to try and grab the Switch. But it was too late, as Siobhan pressed the Switch and was immediately enshrouded in dark energy. Her body, now wrapped in a thick, white, cobweb-like substance, collapsed at the feet of the Ursa Zodiarts.
> 
> "Revenge…" Ursa growled before charging forward. Fourze put up his Barizun Sword in defence, but he wasn't prepared for the sheer force of the huge Zodiarts barrelling directly into him. He was launched backwards, just missing JK (who screamed and dove for the floor) and crashing into the opposite wall. "Reveeeenge!"


	7. Several Satisfying Successes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The case is closed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... I'm sorry to say... this is the LAST CHAPTER of 'The Star-Crazy Cult'! (sobs) This has been one of the more fun fics to write, and it's always sad to bring them to an end, even if being able to check it off a very long list of half-written fics is also very satisfying.
> 
> My thanks to everyone who commented/bookmarked/subscribed/left kudos on this, it's nice to see that my work is appreciated. At the bottom, you'll find a short preview for the next story in the 'World of All Riders' universe, in which some Kamen Rider Club members guest star towards the end. It's primarily a crossover between Kamen Rider OOO and Kamen Rider Drive, called 'Stranger Things Have Happened'. It was mainly born out of the thought that two OOO characters returned to the police force in the finale, and I doubt they'd be as skeptical as the majority of the police outside the SCU are portrayed in Drive.
> 
> Towards the end, see if you can guess the stealth crossover I slipped in there (besides the reference to 'The Other Two-in-One Hero'). Keep in mind that this takes place well after the finale of this third show and its spinoff.
> 
> So, without any further ado, here's the last chapter. (sniffles)
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds or Kamen Rider Fourze.

_Saturday, February 21 st, 2015_

Morgan was heavily relieved when backup arrived. Agent Sakuta and his friend Kisaragi had raced inside to find the source of the chaos, leaving him to take care of the wounded guards out front. But he’d quickly been distracted when inmates began to escape through the suspects’ self-made entrance tunnel. It was all he could do to prevent them from getting out without seriously hurting them.

They started coming at a higher frequency just as half a dozen police cars and two FBI SUVs pulled up. The cops got to work containing the would-be escapees, while Morgan’s own teammates hurried to join him. Five more people followed, each armed with the special weapons Sakuta had brought, and carrying them with more confidence than even the agents. It was the Kamen Rider Club, minus Sakuta, Kisaragi, and (Morgan did a fast head count) Daimonji. He didn’t have time to question where the biggest guy on their team was, though, as he, JJ, Hotch, and Rossi followed them deeper into the jail.

They arrived at the nearly-deserted cafeteria just in time to see Sakuta, fully armoured, and another Kamen Rider – this one in white armour with a pointy helmet – getting thrown into the wall and a table, respectively. “Ryūsei-san!” the gothic-looking girl, Nozama, cried.

“Gentarō!” Utahoshi yelled.

All five Club members, plus the FBI agents, started firing on the three Zodiarts threatening them. The socialite-type girl, Kazashiro, ordered her friends to spread out and help the remaining inmates get clear of the danger zone, at the same time that Hotch ordered his agents to do the same. It was risky; the wolf-like Zodiarts tried to swipe at JK, but he dodged using what looked like breakdancing moves and pulled a man to safety. They were all fully aware that these inmates would try to escape as well, but they had to trust the police outside to keep them contained while they focused on the bigger threat.

* * *

Ryūsei got to his feet as Auriga ducked away from the shots being fired at him. These Zodiarts had already proven to be as powerful as the ones he was used to, as opposed to the three Jackknife Zodiarts he’d taken down before. It was time to get serious.

_‘METEOR STOOOOORM!’_

“Ore no sadame wa arashi wo yobuze!”*

In his powered-up form, Meteor, now armed with the Meteor Storm Shaft, began attacking Auriga with all he had. Auriga tried the charging-on-wheels attack again, but Meteor wouldn’t be caught off-guard by that twice. He sidestepped and swung the Shaft at Aurgia’s neck, effectively clotheslining him and knocking him onto his back. Auriga rolled to dodge another strike and stood up, but then he realised something: while Meteor had been between him and the exit when the fight began, their positions had since switched and he now only had the FBI agents and the Kamen Rider Club to get through. He turned around and shot towards them, using a broken cafeteria table as a ramp of sorts and getting over their heads. Some of their shots hit him, and one actually did damage to the wheel on his right leg. Auriga landed by the busted-open door and shrank the wheels down before running outside.

Meteor wasted no time chasing after him, but even at his top speed (they’d once tested it out and found that he could go up to sixty-seven kilometres per hour as Meteor Storm), he wasn’t able to prevent Auriga from exiting the building. There were a bunch of normal cops there, as well as the remaining FBI agents, and they all started shooting when they realised the Zodiarts was there, but only Agents Reid and Callahan had the special guns, so their shots were the only ones that even bothered Auriga. Meteor tackled him from behind, sending both of them sprawling onto the concrete.

Then there was the growling of an engine, and the Power Dizer skidded around a street corner, shifting into its humanoid configuration before bringing its wheel/fist down on Auriga. So _that_ was where Shun had gotten to. A couple cops tried shoot it as well, and Ryūsei had to yell at them to hold their fire.

Auriga struggled under the Dizer, unable to get up, and Ryūsei decided it was time to end things. “Get ready to move!” he told Shun, activating his Limit Break. “METEOR STORM PUNISHER!” The Storm Topper shot off the top of the Shaft and spun towards Auriga and the Dizer, the latter backing off right away. Auriga only had enough time to stand before the Topper began to repeatedly strike him, gaining more power as it did so.

Finally, Auriga was engulfed by an explosion, and when it dissipated, a roughly forty-year-old man collapsed to the ground. Agents Reid and Callahan rushed forward, the former cuffing the man while the latter scooped up his dropped Switch.

“You bastard!” The Switcher yelled weakly. Ryūsei glanced over to where he was looking and saw Cirino Acqua in the group of re-captured inmates, guarded by cops nearby. “You fucking murderer!”

“That’s Carbrey Powers,” Agent Callahan told Meteor, “Brady Powers’s older brother.” Ryūsei remembered the name from reading the police files.

* * *

Meanwhile, Fourze was managing to do better than before against Lupus and Ursa. With Auriga and Meteor taking their fight outside, the rest of the backup shooters now had only one skirmish to focus on. Ursa was forced to take shelter behind a tipped-over table while Lupus took a Stamper Switch-powered kick to the stomach. The logo of the Kamen Rider Club briefly appeared on his fur before there was an explosion than launched him into the wall.

Using the brief break, Fourze deactivated the Shield and Stamper Switches and swapped Rocket for Cosmic.

_‘Cosmic On!’_

He felt the power of Cosmic States filling him, bringing his energy levels back up. Feeling pumped, he enthusiastically began to lay into Lupus and Ursa, forcing them back with hits from his Barizun Sword Boost Mode before switching it to Sword Mode. Then he backed up and activated the Launcher Switch in his Driver and hit the Number 32 icon on his chest.

_‘Launcher On! Freeze On!’_

Four missiles fired out of the Launcher on his right leg and struck both Zodiarts, blasting them and freezing them in place at the same time.

Then he inserted the Rocket Switch into his sword and activated the Number 10 icon.

_‘Rocket On! Elec On!’_

Yelling, he launched forward with the power of Rocket and slashed at them both with the electricity-covered blade. There was a big explosion than made him stumble back, and when the smoke cleared, two figures dropped to the ground. In Lupus’s place was young man, not much older than the Club members. He groaned and slumped over, unconscious.

The second Switcher, however, was a surprise. About the same age as the first, she had long, dark auburn hair and a furious look in her green eyes as she struggled to pick up her Switch again.

“Siobhan Mahoney,” Agent Jareau identified her, “She’s Teague Mahoney’s daughter, the one who was in contact with Aita.”

“Stay out of this,” Mahoney growled, somehow managing to stand despite the beating, clutching the Switch in her shaking hand, “You _muca_ , just stay out of my way! Those fucking Jackknives have to pay for what they did! Revenge for Erin… revenge for Daley… for Brady… revenge for my father!”

 _“Last One.”_ The Switch in her hand suddenly changed, the red button shifting to an angled position and the round silver part on top turning pink with darker pink lines, making it resemble an irritated eyeball.

“She’s entered Last One!” Kengo gasped.

“Wait!” Fourze yelled, running forward to try and grab the Switch. But it was too late, as Siobhan pressed the Switch and was immediately enshrouded in dark energy. Her body, now wrapped in a thick, white, cobweb-like substance, collapsed at the feet of the Ursa Zodiarts.

“Revenge…” Ursa growled before charging forward. Fourze put up his Barizun Sword in defence, but he wasn’t prepared for the sheer force of the huge Zodiarts barrelling directly into him. He was launched backwards, just missing JK (who screamed and dove for the floor) and crashing into the opposite wall. “Reveeeenge!”

Everyone still on their feet fired repeatedly at Ursa, but she batted their shots aside and continued to charge for the exit behind them. They had no choice but to dodge when she reached them, Kengo getting violently batted aside as she passed. “Shit!” Fourze gasped as he chased after her.

* * *

Meteor had just turned to go back in and help the others when the Ursa Zodiarts came barrelling out, roaring in rage. He held up his Storm Shaft to block his mad rush, only to get pushed back several feet.

Fourze was right on his heels. “Careful, Ryūsei!” he called, trying to attack Ursa from behind, “She’s entered Last One!”

“REVEEEEEENGE!” Ursa yelled in a distorted, somewhat feminine voice, trying to swipe at Fourze with his – sorry, _her_ sharp claws. The white Rider blocked the attacks with his sword and slashed at her a few times while Meteor got in a few strikes of his own. When Ursa whipped around to try and deal with him, Fourze summoned the Gattling Switch and swapped it with Drill before activating it, then hit the Number 20 Icon.

_‘Gattling On! Fire On!’_

Fourze shot a rapid-fire volley of flaming bullets from the Gattling Module on his left leg, hitting Ursa and doing some real damage. With her fur on fire, she tried to run away, at least that’s what they thought at first. But then she changed direction and charged at the group of inmates, including the targets of her revenge. She was intercepted halfway by the Shun and the Power Dizer, who tossed her into the outer wall of the jail with a powerful swing.

Meteor activated his Limit Break again. “METEOR STORM PUNISHER!”

While Ursa reeled and tried to recover after being repeatedly struck by the Storm Topper, Fourze moved in for the kill.

_‘Cosmic Limit Break!’_

Fourze shot forward with a yell, knocking Ursa through a swirling blue portal he’d opened up behind her. Most of the law enforcement officers stared in bewilderment as the portal vanished, while the remaining Kamen Rider Club members looked up at the sky.

“There!” Tomoko gasped, pointing to a flash of light among the stars. Ryūsei knew it to be the death explosion of the Zodiarts. Sighing in relief and exhaustion, he deactivated his Driver and sat down on the curb, the other Club members relaxing as well.

“What just happened?” Agent Callahan asked.

“Cosmic States’s Limit Break defeats the Zodiarts in the planet’s outer atmosphere,” Kengo explained, “Gentarō will be parachuting down in a few minutes.”

“What about the Switcher?!” Agent Reid demanded.

“She entered Last One after being defeated a few minutes ago. Her real body’s still indoors, she’ll be fine.”

* * *

_Sunday, February 22 nd, 2015_

Ryūsei shut his briefcase after putting all his files away. All the Switchers that they knew of had been rounded up. Siobhan Mahoney was in a hospital getting treatment, and would make a full recovery before returning to jail to await her trial. Bertoldo De Luca had been found in an illegal mob clinic getting treated for his gunshot wound from the shootout two days ago, and was arrested. The Seaimpíní were reportedly in disarray, though it was likely that the late Teague Mahoney’s lieutenant Ulick Vincent would soon gain control, with Carbrey Powers in jail and the third lieutenant, Keegan Hayes, having disappeared.

For the BAU, it was a case closed. The Switches were still being held as evidence for the trials, but the arrangements had already been made to hand them over to Interpol for destruction once there was no more use for them. But for Ryūsei, it was a bit of a disappointment. While all the known Switchers had been caught, he still hadn’t nabbed any of the sellers. All he had to go on was Foundation X and a white van.

Tomoko, knowing what he was thinking as always, gently grasped his hand. “You’ll catch them,” she assured him.

Ryūsei managed to smile weakly back at her. “I know.”

“I’VE GOT THEM!” The triumphant cry rang out across the room and made everyone in it jump in surprise.

Gentarō, Ryūsei, and Tomoko joined the BAU agents as they gathered around their analyst. “What have you got, Baby Girl?” Agent Morgan asked.

“Okay, so here’s the thing. I went through a ton of footage trying to find that van, and I mean a _ton_. And I only found it a couple more times, but this one, this one has a license plate reflected in a store window. So I traced that number to a rental place, and while their records came up with a ‘John Smith’ as the renter, I was able to get his face on _their_ cameras and run it through facial recognition, I got this.” She showed them a screen grab of a man in a Foundation X uniform entering a hotel. “I called the hotel, and faxed over the guy’s picture, and the night manager got me his name and booking information. I don’t know if it’s his real name or not, but the guy’s registered as one Jun Kazu, and he’s been staying in that room since early January and still hasn’t checked out.”

“Kazu Jun?” Gentarō muttered. Despite not understanding most of what she was saying, he’d apparently picked out the name and found it familiar.

“You know who he is?” Ryūsei asked.

“Yeah, Shōtarō-sempai mentioned him. He was a Foundation X member, but he died four or five years ago.”

Ryūsei repeated this information to the FBI agents. “He must be using it as an alias,” Agent Jareau surmised.

“Looks like we have one more arrest to make,” Agent Rossi chimed in, before looking over at Ryūsei, “Agent Sakuta, I think you have the lead on this one.”

Tomoko grinned. “I _told_ you you’d catch them.”

Ryūsei grinned back. He should have known better than to doubt her intuition.

* * *

The guests and staff looked rather alarmed when Ryūsei entered the hotel lobby with a few cops, the entire Kamen Rider Club, and Agents Hotchner and Morgan in tow. They were met by the manager, a rather perky Latino man with a very long name, who led them up to ‘Kazu’’s room while assuring them that the man had not yet checked out. Ryūsei and the other law enforcement officers drew their weapons while the unarmed Club members stood further back with the manager.

“Jun Kazu!” Ryūsei called, banging on the door (using the alias since he had no other name by which to call him), “This is Interpol! Open the door!”

For a second, there was silence, then a flurry of rustling and thumping could be heard. When no one opened up, Ryūsei nodded, and Hotchner unlocked the door with the manager’s key card.

They burst in, guns trained, finding the five-star hotel room in a state of disarray, the kind that indicated the guest was halfway through packing. The suspect, attempting to cram some files into a suitcase, turned and made a mad dash toward a window, slipping a flash drive from his pocket. Or rather…

_‘MASQUERADE!’_

The suspect jammed the Gaia Memory into his neck, causing his face to morph into a black and off-white mask. He then turned and charged at the agents. Ryūsei lowered his weapon and chose to meet his mad rush head-on, punching him in the chest a few times. The Masquerade Dopant stumbled backwards, diving for a gun on the bedside table.

Agent Morgan came from behind Ryūsei and tackled him to the ground. “Oh, no you don’t!” he growled. He was surprised to find himself being shoved to the side, not expecting the Dopant’s enhanced strength.

Gentarō joined the fight, kicking at the Dopant a couple times and being evaded. The Dopant tried to grab at him, but Gentarō head-butted him, groaning at the resulting headache he gave himself. Meanwhile, this caused the Dopant to stumble again, allowing Ryūsei to get close enough to perform the one-inch punch Inga had taught him, sending the suspect flying and crashing into the wall and knocking him out. The Masquerade Memory fell out of him, though it didn’t break.

While everyone else gathered themselves, Ryūsei strode forward and flipped the stirring suspect onto his back and cuffing him. “You’re under arrest.”

* * *

_“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln_

_Friday, March 27 th, 2015_

A week after the strangest case they’d ever had (and that was saying something), the BAU agents were back at Quantico. The arrested Foundation X agent, identified as a man named Gorō Hashimoto, had said nothing, but his files had provided plenty of information, including a list of Switches and Gaia Memories that the Foundation had sold in the US. The agents were pleased to discover that all the Switches had been already accounted for, and Agent Sakuta had sent a copy of the list to his private eye contacts who were hunting Dopants in the States. On that list was the missing Seaimpíní lieutenant Keegan Hayes, who’d bought himself a Torch Memory a few days after his gang had bought their Switches.

One week after the young Interpol agent and friends had returned home, Hotch received an email from him, and forwarded it to his team:

_You may have already heard about it, but the last Gaia Memory user from Hashimoto’s list was arrested yesterday in Dayton, Ohio. It was Keegan Hayes, the missing member of the Seaipmíní. Official records will claim that he was found at the scene of an arson attempt involving multiple people, but you have the right to know that Hayes had actually gone on a rampage with the Torch Memory and was stopped by a Kamen Rider. Rest assured that this is most likely the last of the monsters causing trouble in your country, though I hope we get to work together again on a more… ‘normal’ case._

Hotch’s lips twitched in what could almost be a smile as he read that last line. He agreed that while it had certainly been an interesting case, he’d had his fill of monsters out of science fiction.

 

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *"My fate will call down a storm!" This is the catchphrase for Kamen Rider Meteor's powered-up form, Meteor Storm. For CM fans who are unfamiliar, his black suit turns blue, and his blue armour turns gold. He also gets additional armour on his left shoulder (as in his base form it's only on his right) and the spikes on his helmet now point in both directions. He also gains a long staff called the Meteor Storm Shaft, which has an attachment on one end called the Storm Topper (which is basically a big, yellow Beyblade). He can launch the Topper (again, just like a Beyblade) at his enemy for his finisher, as it absorbs their energy and uses it against them.
> 
> In case it wasn't clear to the reads unfamiliar with Kamen Rider Fourze, Last One is an evolved state of a Zodiarts Switch which is the most dangerous to the user. A Zodiarts who survives a finisher while in Last One has the potential to evolve to Horoscope level (one of the 12 Western Zodiac constellations)
> 
> Okay, so that's the end of that! If you're curious to see how Keegan Hayes got captured, check out my other story 'The Other Two-In-One Hero'. And here's the preview for 'Stranger Things Have Happened':
> 
> The first officer snorted and rolled his eyes. "It's all ridiculousness. The Special Crimes Unit think they're hunting monsters when they're really just the reject department, and now they've got Otta caught up in their delusions. He's been going on about some hero called a 'Kamen Rider' for the past month or so." He snorted and glanced back down at his papers. "Well, I just have to go file this report, and then I can take my lunch break. You guys want to try that new café down the street?"
> 
> His two companions agreed, but Shingo waved them off. "I've still got some more paperwork to do," he lied. While he still had some files left, they weren't due to be submitted until tomorrow afternoon. He was just reaching for an excuse to get out of lunch with them. The older officers shrugged and left without him, apologising when they accidentally bumped into another younger detective on their way out.
> 
> "What was that all about?" Gotō Shintarō asked, noticing Shingo's annoyed look.
> 
> "Ah, the usual. Monsters don't exist, and neither do Slowdowns or Kamen Riders. Oh, and the Special Crimes Unit is full of delusional rejects."
> 
> Gotō (a retired Kamen Rider) scowled. "Isn't the newest Rider attached to that Unit, in some way?"


End file.
